Thomas Cushman

Thomas Cushman (1607/8–1691) was a leader in Plymouth Colony, New England.

He arrived at the colony with his father Robert Cushman on the ship Fortune in November 1621. Robert Cushman returned to England alone, leaving Thomas as a ward of Governor William Bradford.

In 1649 Thomas succeeded William Brewster as Ruling Elder and held that position for over 40 years until his death. Over his long life Cushman became a person of note in the colony being involved in numerous important activities. His wife Mary was the daughter of Pilgrim Isaac Allerton.

Thomas Cushman was born in Canterbury, county Kent, England, being baptized at St. Andrew, Canterbury on February 8, 1607/8. His parents were Robert Cushman and Sara Reder, his father bring a grocer at that time. When Thomas was very young, the family emigrated to Holland to follow the English Separatist religious movement.

Robert Cushman seems to be one of the earlier carriers of this name, which over many years, per Kent parish records of the 16th and 17th centuries, derived from such surnames as Cowchman, Couchman, Cutchman, Cuchman, Crocheman, etc. The surname of Robert Cushman’s father Thomas was Couchman.

Although spelled differently, the Couchmans of England had their deepest ancestry in Kent with Cranbrook at the center. Predominantly they were cloth makers, Flemish in origin, who with other countrymen came to several regions of England at the invitation of King Edward II around the year 1336. (From Thomas Fuller, Church History of England, 1837.)

Robert Cushman was a wool-comber in Leiden, Holland. In 1616, his wife Sara and two children were buried at St. Peter's church in Leiden. Robert later married Mary (Clark) Shingleton on June 5, 1617. She was the widow of Thomas, shoemaker of Sandwich, Kent. Late in 1617, soon after his second marriage, Robert Cushman and John Carver were tasked by the Leiden congregation to go to the Council for Virginia in London to negotiate for patent within the Company’s grant. Robert Cushman was the Leiden, and later, the Plymouth contingent’s Chief Agent in England from 1617 until his death in 1625. There is no further record of Robert Cushman’s second wife. She may have been deceased before the Cushman’s embarked in the Fortune in 1621 and therefore the reason Thomas was left with Bradford.

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